Another advancement has strengthened the block-chain community. American Express and Santander have partnered with the financial technology firm and the famous cryptocurrency Ripple to speed up cross border payments between the United States and United Kingdom by using the block-chain technology.

American’s business customers will be able to use the blockchain technology as all international payments that previously was done through FX International Payments platform will be routed through Ripple’s blockchain network, Ripple Net

Block chain otherwise known as distributed ledger technology allows vast amounts of data to be stored on different nodes in a network rather than one centralized location. It was originally used to record all bitcoin transactions, but the technology has evolved since then businesses are finding alternative uses such as payments, trade finance and identity verification.

A number of financial institutions like JPMorgan, UBS, Credit Suisse, Barclays and HSBC are experimenting with distributed ledger projects.

Marc Gordon, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer at American Express said in a statement “”This collaboration with Ripple and Santander represents the next step forward on our blockchain journey, evolving the way we move money around the world”

The block chain project will allow customers in U.S. to connect instant, cross border payments to UK Santander Bank Accounts

Jose Luis Calderon, global head of global transaction banking at Santander, said “This blockchain solution opens up a new channel between the U.S. and the U.K. and presents significant opportunity for payments globally”

The distributed ledger platform will enable all parties involved in the transaction to keep a track of the status and the cost of executing the transaction.

“We’re taking a huge step forward with American Express and Santander in solving the problems corporate customers experience with global payments. Transfers that used to take days will be completed in real-time, allowing money to move as fast as business today,” Garlinghouse said in a statement Thursday.

Ripple CEO said that the blockchain will allow business customers of financial services firm to move money in real time. Both American Express and Ripple suggested that this project can be eventually scaled worldwide